Nov 17, 2024
Hello! Is Anybody Out There?
Lately, every time I log on to the web, I see pop-ups. Well, that’s not lately – the Internet is always one big commercial, dishing up propaganda, spooky algorithms (“How did it know I was thinking about sandals made in Brazil???”), and invasive seductions, with occasional bits of news and useful information. At least there is a pause in political pop-ups, but they will resume soon.
However, two categories of messages glom up my in-box lately, and not to my regret. Past and future, in a manner of speaking. I am inundated with videos about prehistoric architecture, pyramids around the world, and ancient civilizations. Fascinating discoveries and intriguing questions. And the other category on the web… I should say Webb, because we are continuously seeing more galaxies, probing deeper into outer space, and learning more about what we don’t know as humankind. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope.
We not only “see” farther and more clearly than ever before, but lenses, filters, and spectrometry – and pinpoint transmissions – provide indications of where things are, what they are made of, and, ultimately, myriad things we don’t know.
Being a city boy, I am always awestruck by clear night skies in sparse areas of the world where I have visited and looked up. Not the points of constellations observed by the Ancients and given names because they vaguely resembled objects – a primitive connect-the-dots exercise. No, the thousands of stars that blanket the night sky. But now we begin to know what the first humans who looked Up only guessed at.
There are more than thousands of stars. There are trillions of stars.
There are more than trillions of stars, because those “stars” often are entire galaxies with trillions of their own suns and stars.
There are more than suns and stars, because, as in “our” solar system, there are planets and moons too.
The very tiniest dot of light we now see in Webb’s image-captures might in itself be a distant but gargantuan galaxy with its own trillions of constituent members. “Universes” by themselves, metaphorically speaking. The “heavens.”
Where does the universe stop? Does it have an “end,” a wall? … and then, what is on the other side of that wall? When will it end? Ever? When did it begin? And How?
If your brain is hurting, as mine is, it means not that you have special insight or an enlightened curiosity; it means that you have a pulse. “Primitive” cultures and squads of PhDs alike, and all of us in between, wonder about those generic conundrums – where we are, how we got here, what’s out there, and such. It is why myriad superstitions and belief systems and religions have sprouted. The basic but inchoate wonderment has inspired thinkers and poets and, thank God, now even governments and entrepreneurs to employ technology and reach “out.”
Whether archaeologists and anthropologists explore the past, or scientists and philosophers speculate on the present and future, mistakes have been made. Well-meaning, often; presumptuous, frequently; foolish, occasionally. The latest explanation of the what-when-where-and-how of the universe’s origin is the “Big Bang” theory.
Speaking personally, my brain doesn’t hurt about the Big Bang theory. My face does, from laughing so much about it. Skeptics and presumptuous atheists challenge Bible-believers on the matter that the Bible has the answers to the questions asked above. “Where you there when the universe began?” they challenge. Of course not, is the answer. But my God was, and He has told us all about it.
Back to that Big Bang, we can ask the same questions – what was before the Big Bang? Just where in this “empty universe” did the Bang happen? If it is still happening at its extremities, where can it end; whether its expansion is linear or 360-degree, and (the latest speculation) if it is forever growing and contracting… we are no closer to answering the what-when-where-and-how of it all.
Notice that there is no Who in that set of questions. Humankind – or much of it – in its arrogance and, ultimately, foolishness insists on reaching for and embracing every answer but the God Answer. Oh, it gets close: blathering about the “God Particle” and Intelligent Design, and such. They are deflections; euphemisms.
“All the saints and sages who discussed [Omar the Tentmaker wrote centuries ago] /of the Two Worlds so learnedly are thrust / Like foolish prophets forth; their words to scorn are scattered; / Their mouths are stopped with dust.”
The scoffers go further when they use the recent cascading discoveries of this virtually unfathomable universe to challenge our faith: There must be uncountable other planets with life and life-forms and civilizations out there… if there is a God, why would He place us in a faraway corner of an unimportant universe and galaxy?… When we realize the vastness of space, don’t we realize how insignificant we are???
- Well. We do realize certain things. If there is creation… there must be a Creator.
- Read Genesis. That is the Big Bang, explained in step-by-step fashion.
- Uncountable other explanations of creation (including scientific answers) have been abandoned or discredited or superseded by other theories. Yes… we do note that this current “answer” is nevertheless termed by its proponents a theory.
- The God of the Bible – excuse me, the Creator of the Universe – has been so reliable through every other detail of history, prophecy, and fulfillment, that we can be assured that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof”… but, more, that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork (Psalm 19:1). And if there were “other” worlds, as with the superstition about reincarnation, the Bible would have told us. Not so.
Who, What, When, Where, and How? God, God, God, God, and God. His Creation pleases Him. But let us ask the other “standard” question – WHY? We – you and I – are His children, the apples of His eye, a purpose of His Creation, we are told.
We look at these images of a crazy-vast universe; of its unending space and its parts; of its wonders and beauty and mysteries… and do we feel insignificant, as scientists and skeptics tell us we should feel?
NO! As grateful believers in the Creator God… we feel anything but insignificant. As His children, we are His creations too! And we are special. We are significant. Let us respond every day in every way as we should. Our “brains may hurt,” but our souls are at peace.
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Like power on black velvet, the Milky Way arches over our house on clear nights., and my mind wanders.
Our “brains may hurt,” but our souls are at peace.
Yea, verily!
Thanks, Rick.